My journeys that never happened……thoughts and memories.

Text by the retired philologist A. L.

When i was a child i read the book “The Only Journey of His Life” by George Vizyinos and i started imagining of the many journeys i would make in my life….. in contrast with the hero of the book…… In the book a naive and feckless grandfather has excited his grandson’s imagination, through his stories about distant journeys. When later the grandson visits his dying grandfather, he learns from him, that he hasn’t done any of all those journeys he talked about. The journey to the afterlife was his only one….

Likewise, many years passed beautifully, but without any journeys…… in cities around the world, to distant seas and great museums…. Family matters, financial problems, all of them had a part in my life.

I didn’t see London, New York, Beijing, Singapore…..

Yet i feel lucky, that i traveled in my Greece, that i got to know its mountains and forests, the plains and the seas, with the waves and the breeze…..

I didn’t see the rivers Thames, Tiber, Nile, Ganges…..

Yet i feel lucky, that i kneeled in ancient temples, in Byzantine cities and Cycladic chapels…..

I didn’t see the Louvre, the Vatican city, the British museum, the Pyramids…..

Yet i feel lucky, that through journeys, i learned the history of my country, away from the books, walking on the paths and the alleys of cities and islands……

However somewhere here there is a big lie: i have traveled all over the world through reading travel texts from writers and lovers of speech and YES i feel like a have covered the absence of the big journeys.

One piece of advice ( i don’t like that word ), a piece of advice full of love would be this:

Either the journeys are real or imaginary, either the excursions are short or long, everything is well accepted and without postponement…..
“Lets think the Poet who wrote ” Little boat where will we anchor, boatman where to?”